My Pillar of Support
by EternalShadowStorm
Summary: Fuji Yuuta didn't think his life would ever change and that he would always just stay in his older brother's shadow. But it would soon change with the arrival of someone he didn't expect...What will happen then? Fuji Yuuta/Echizen Ryoma-LOVE!


**Disclaimer: **I don't own The Prince of Tennis. I just use the characters and the world for my own muse.

**Author's Note: **I am still alive if some of you guys are familiar with my works and myself. LOL! I really needed to focus in school and after what happened last year was just too much for me to really focus and being imaginative. But anyways, I will soon be continuing to add in new chapters for my other stories and this new one as well. When it comes to new ideas, I am really one to start writing one right away and believe me, I have many stories in my files saved up for my long absences of writing in the past several months almost a year actually of absence.

Though I know most of you would understand my reason if you read some of my works in my profile. Anyways, I hope you all will enjoy this new story with a different pairing that I normally don't usually write and besides, I thought it would be cute. I know that some of you guys out there would agree with me and so I'm dedicating this story to you guys. The timeline of the POT world will still be the same. Though the difference in my story is that a certain couple will meet and know each other way before everything obviously starts in the timeline. Some characters may or may not be OOC, but it really depends later; we will see.

**Pairing: **Fuji Yuuta/Echizen Ryoma, Tezuka Kunimitsu/Fuji Syusuke, Oishi Shuichiroh/Kikumaru Eiji, Inui Sadaharu/Kaidoh Kaoru, Kawamura Takashi/Momoshiro Takeshi, and others will be mentioned later in the chapters.

**Summary: **Fuji Yuuta didn't think that his world can turn for the better, but obviously he was wrong. Which to him was a really good thing and much to his new found luck. He didn't expect to meet someone who didn't know about his big nii-san, Syusuke, who was the prodigy of the family besides their big nee-san who was way older then they were, so she really didn't count. But having to meet Echizen Ryoma made him face the fact that he has to be his own person and prove to others that he wasn't just a shadow to be looked upon or Fuji Syusuke's otouto-chan. With the help of his new found friend, Yuuta's future was starting to brighten up with someone who would actually support him.

**~o.O.o~*~o.O.o~*~o.O.o~*~o.O.o~*~o.O.o~**

A lovely child at the tender age of six was wandering around his new neighborhood curiously. Luckily, the place that the child had wanted to find suddenly came around the corner of the street he turned in.

He looked on with a small smile upon his lips before he dashed towards the park that contained a children's big playground. He happily went around to try out the swing sets, overhead ladders, jungle gym, and many others more as he didn't care what time of the day it was as long as he had enough time to enjoy the play area; also to return home on time before it's sunset.

By now, if anyone was to pay attention to the child at all, especially any adults who saw him, most would have fretted because of how such a cute small young child could be wandering around town without any parental supervision. But the child was special, he was a lot older in thought and mind then most people his age or older would have given him credit for.

His parents knew that he was old enough to know that he shouldn't go off with strange looking people, actually, he shouldn't go off with any strangers at all that are totally suspicious looking with the intent of bribing him with anything.

Besides, he already knew the surrounding area since he has pretty good memory, he had to thank none other than his baka oyaji for that. Ever since he was able to walk and talk, his oyaji has engraved it on his mind along with his nii-chan, the importance of the sport called Tennis.

The association of the word is the very foundation of how the Echizen family came about to be the world known class family because of one, Echizen "Samurai" Nanjiroh a.k.a. his oyaji. Though his mother's background isn't one to be ignored as well since she came from a pretty wealthy family herself that even rivaled a certain family in Japan.

But enough of that, all Echizen Ryoma wanted to do that day was to get away from his dad because his oyaji wouldn't give him a rest. His dad always insisted that he has to get better in tennis so that he would be able to beat him someday. Though for goodness sake, he was only six years old, what exactly was he capable of doing more with his small body and young age? Nothing much, that's what!

He knew that he wasn't the only one since his brother was the other person that their father always focuses his attention on as well. But to be honest, even his nii-chan needed to have his own break since he was the oldest of the two, hence their father pushes him to his very limit.

It was actually to that point that his older brother couldn't take it anymore and left to make his own journey at the age of fourteen. Though he was glad that his nii-chan didn't leave until he said some parting words with his little otouto-chan, meaning him. So there goes his family packing from the United States and moving back to his parent's homeland in Japan in hopes of finding his nii-chan there. Though that is another story to tell at a later time.

But really, all Ryoma wanted to do was to have fun, meet new kids, and have real true friends. He didn't want to be stuck in a world where he is always trying to beat all those people who were stuck up, fake, lousy, and older then him because of the sport for the rest of his life. He just wanted to have enjoyment and some freedom and not always be stuck with the words, "Tennis this!" and "Tennis that!" all day long from his oyaji.

With so many thoughts distracting Ryoma, he didn't realize that he almost missed the sounds that he heard from somewhere when he got off the slides. Looking around curiously, Ryoma noticed that he was the only one in the playground area in the park unless he included several teenagers or adults.

Though he couldn't help but want to investigate since he was the only one in the playground, or so he thought. As he got closer to one of the round spheres that acted as a small maze for any kids his age could crawl upon and play hide-and-seek, the sounds grew louder as he approached it.

At first, Ryoma had the slight feeling of fear because he didn't really think that there were real monsters in dark places. Since he noticed that if one was to crawl in the maze, it seemed dark as the sun wasn't shining through the entrance. As he thought of crawling inside the closed sphere of the maze was an appealing urge, he really didn't want to go in by himself.

Mustering up his courage though, he came closer to the sphere and as he faced the dark entrance, he realized that the sound that was coming out from the maze were of great sobs that he recognized right away when his okaa-san would burst into tears when she watches her sad or very touching soap operas on T.V.

As Ryoma moved forward and thought of going inside to see who was crying, he didn't have to wait long when instead someone around his age that was taller than him with dark auburn hair with grey eyes, came stumbling out.

Ryoma stood rooted on the spot before those grey eyes of the person in front of him turned their tear stained eyes upon his golden ones in surprise. A sudden blush came upon the browned hair boy's face as he didn't think someone else was there in the playground with him and to witness the act of him crying like a baby.

Taking the chance to ask if the grey eyed boy was alright, Ryoma asked him politely.

"Ne, daijoubu desuka, nii-chan?"

The browned haired kid stayed quiet with his head down and Ryoma thought that maybe it was a bad idea to ask since the older boy looked really upset and he had almost left. But then, he thought about what his okaa-san would have done in his place to make someone else feel better. So without any warning for the grey eyed boy, Ryoma moved forward and went on his tip toes to give the other a huge hug and a kiss on the left cheek. Ryoma stayed longer in his position before pulling back and grinning like he accomplished something important.

"Ne, ne, nii-chan? Did you know that my okaa-san tells me that if I give someone a hug and a kiss that it would make their boo-boos go away."

Not knowing that he shocked the brown haired kid speechless with his actions, Ryoma continued on speaking anyway.

"Ne, nii-chan? Are you okay now? Did it work? I mean when my okaa-san hugs me and kisses me, I feel better. So, did you get cured? Or are you still sad, nii-chan?"

Waiting patiently, Ryoma waited to see if the taller boy would respond and he didn't have to wait long since the boy looked up from hiding his face and then down again at him shyly with a hint of a blush lingering on his face.

"Hai. Arigato gozaimasu. My name is Fuji Yuuta."

"Nice to meet you, Fuji-nii-chan. My names Echizen Ryoma." Ryoma introduced himself and gave a rare smile as he got the older boy to respond.

Yuuta on the other hand was at a complete loss since he didn't expect anyone to be so nice to him and he really didn't expect to get hugged and kissed at the same time. If anyone that he knew came by that was from his school, many would bully him and call him names for crying. But since he never met Echizen before, he was kind of glad to see the new and unfamiliar face of the shorter boy. He also noticed that Ryoma had pretty golden colored eyes and raven-black hair with emerald highlights.

If he had anything extra to say, he thought that the person in front of him was a girl at first. Though he didn't make a mistake of voicing that out in case the boy would have fled and never talk to him again, so he kept his mouth shut.

"It's nice to meet you too, Echizen-kun. I feel all better now and thank you." Yuuta exclaimed shyly as he got an even bigger smile in return.

"I'm really glad, Fuji-nii-chan."

"Yeah…" Was the only response Yuuta can think up of before he had the great idea of asking Echizen to play with him. So he asked him, "Ne, Echizen-kun, would you like to play with me so that I can thank you for helping me. I don't have anyone to play with and I feel a whole lot better now thanks to you. What do you say?"

Yuuta's only answer was being pulled towards the swing sets before both of them lost themselves to playing anything that they thought was fun to try. Many shared secrets, feelings, and thoughts were spoken of openly as the time passed by for a few hours, about two and a half hours to be exact.

At the time they were playing, Yuuta shared about what made him cry like he did and Ryoma listened and nodded every once in a while to show that he paid close attention. While Ryoma gave his own story as to why he was at the park by himself and what took place at his own household.

Right then and there was the moment that the two would start off to having a great friendship. Yuuta didn't even care if Ryoma was a year younger then him but it really didn't matter since Ryoma seemed to be smart anyway.

It was then that Ryoma knew that he had to go home soon as he noticed how long he has been playing with Yuu-chan, which was the official name that he gave to Yuuta. Whereas, to Yuuta, he wanted to call Ryoma, Ryo-chan for short in exchange. Ryoma was glad then to have met Yuu-chan otherwise he wouldn't have a new friend that was not only nice but liked him because he can act like himself and vice-versa.

When it was time for them to finally part to go home, both looked at each other in surprise when they headed to the same direction. Which triggered off a short laugh between one another and questions of what their addresses were. With Yuuta, it was easy for him to tell that Ryoma didn't live far away from where he lives, about a block or so. Which to him was a good thing since he didn't want to lose Ryo-chan yet since he was really nice, he was someone who cared about what he has to say and he actually paid attention to him and listened.

"Ne, Ryo-chan? Since you only live about a block away from my house, I'm going to walk you home first. Is that alright? Also, would you like to come over this Friday? You can play video games with me and share my toys and everything? Yeah?" Yuuta asked hopefully, as he turned his eyes to look down at Ryoma pleadingly, while he rested an arm over the younger boy's shoulder at the same time.

"Sure, Yuu-chan. I don't really have anything to do in my house anyway besides my oyaji trying to beat me down in tennis. Demo, I have to ask my okaa-san first to see if I can go so that she knows where I'm going to stay. Though when I get home, I can't ask her to meet you since she's still at work by then. So maybe until you come and get me is when I can introduce you to my okaa-san and otou-san."

Happy that he was going to be invited to his new friend's house was an amazing thing for Ryoma. He really didn't have any real friends before and after his family moved to Japan. He really didn't have to worry anymore since he has Yuuta, he finally had a friend that he can honestly like.

Yuuta smiled happily at Ryoma's answer and gave the other boy a squeeze on the shoulder. Both continued on to go home and talked like old friends before Ryoma was dropped off first. Wishing Yuuta to be safe was the last thing Ryoma called out before he stepped into his house. Yuuta on the other hand was beyond thrilled since he finally had someone to play with other then his own nii-san, Syusuke.

He actually forgot the whole point of him crying in the first place and couldn't help but be thankful to Ryoma for making him smile and playing with him. He actually learned from Ryoma that he has been living in the United States his whole life and just came back to Japan because of some family business.

It was with a promise that he was willing to visit Ryoma again and ask him to play with him the next day at the same playground. He really couldn't wait and he had a feeling that Ryoma was feeling the same way too. With those excited thoughts going off in his head, Yuuta walked back to his house with an extra hop to his steps because of his new found friend, Ryo-chan.

"_I can't wait to see Ryoma again. This is going to be so awesome."_

**TBC...**

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**Author's Note: **Yes, I am still alive. Many of you guys know me and if you don't please feel free to read my other works though most are going to be re-edited is in the process of being re-done. Anyways, I'm glad to be back along with my multiple muse. So, hopefully whoever read and review this chapter after they read it, I would like to say, ARIGATO GOZAIMASU! Until next time!


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